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So we got a nice new HP DL380 server with a fancy RAID card about one year ago.

2 months ago a hard drive failed. Thank goodness for RAID5... except that the RAID card only sort of worked and the machine hard reset. After fvck it came back up.

6 weeks ago another drive fails. Machine hard reset again, came back up.

4 weeks ago another drive fails. Machine hard resets. The data center puts a new drive in, and the new drive fails. Replace that drive. After a fvck it comes back up.

This morning, yet another drive (this is the 5th drive now, for those who are counting) reports "SMART imminent failure".

Needless to say, we've moved everything off this server so that it's not in use anymore.

Can anyone think of anything that could be going on to cause this sort of scenario? I find it hard to believe that there could be this many bad hard drives. Is the RAID card toasting hard drives? Power supply issue?

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  • This is probably a good case for contacting the vendor. Are there are any firmware updates available? Are the disks from different lots? I would assume so because of the amount of time which has passed, but you never know. Sep 13, 2013 at 14:20
  • Please give the generation of the DL380 server.
    – ewwhite
    Sep 13, 2013 at 14:21
  • Maybe the datacenter isn't replacing the failed drives with new drives. Maybe they're using old drives that have been sitting on a shelf or drives that were decommissioned from other servers or refurbished drives purchased online. Have you asked them where they're getting the replacement drives from?
    – joeqwerty
    Sep 13, 2013 at 17:22

1 Answer 1

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  1. Controller failure
  2. bad controller firmware
  3. faulty drives supplied by the hoster (some of the less reputable ones tend to do that)
  4. bad combo of disk and controller firmware
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  • 1
    I would consider Power Supply as well
    – Mehdi
    Sep 13, 2013 at 14:58
  • 1
    + Environment, temperature, no grounding, static electricity, magnetic field sources
    – GioMac
    Sep 13, 2013 at 15:34
  • The list could go on and on :)
    – dyasny
    Sep 13, 2013 at 16:26

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